1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice bin of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an ice bin of a refrigerator for preventing a phenomenon that rotary motion of a rotating blade is restricted by excessive ejecting of whole ice to the outside of the ice bin and being stacked of piece of ice to the bottom of the ice bin.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view that roughly illustrates the structure of a related art refrigerator, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the structure of an ice bin of FIG. 1.
As illustrated in these drawings, in general, a refrigerator comprises a water tank 10 that is attached to the refrigerator body for keeping a certain amount of water therein, an ice machine 30 connecting to double solenoid valve 20 which is interposed at a first outlet 11 of the water tank 10 and including an ice making mold 31 that is used to make ice, an ice bin 40 that is connected to the ice making mold 31 for storing the made ice and grinding the stored ice prior to dispensing, and a dispenser 50 that externally discharges the ice from the ice bin 40 through an outlet thereof, and further externally discharges the water stored in the water tank 10 through a second outlet 12 thereof.
The double solenoid valve 20 comprises an ice making valve (not shown) and a dispenser valve (not shown). As mentioned above, the ice making valve supplies water to the ice making mold 31 by opening the valve when ice making is necessary, and the dispenser valve discharges the supplied water to the dispenser 50 by lowering the temperature of the supplied water upon passing through the water tank 10 and opening it according to the user's need.
The ice bin 40 comprises a case 41 with an upper portion that is open (or can be opened) to allow a flow of ice (e.g., ice cubes, pieces of ice, etc.) to enter and has a diffuser 41a at a bottom portion thereof used for externally discharging the ice; an auger 44 positioned within the case 41 for transferring the flow of ice; guides 42a, 42b for guiding the transferred ice; a grinder 43 for grinding the ice guided by guides 42a, 42b; and a shutter 45 that opens and closes the diffuser 41a for selectively discharging the ice from the case 41.
One part of the case 41 is formed to be rectangular, and the grinder 43 is located at the center of the bottom of the case 41. The guides 42a, 42b are inclined “downward” towards the grinder 43 (positioned at the center of the case 41) and formed to be extended from both side sections of the case 41. The grinder 43 and the guides 42a, 42b are arranged at a fixed distance (namely, there is a gap therebetween) to allow the ice cubes to be ground up as they fall into the grinder 43.
The grinder 43 comprises a rotating blade 43a having the same axis with the auger 44, and a fixed blade 43b being fixed and arranged in a perpendicular manner (at a right angle) with the bottom surface of the case 41, and wherein multiple blade portions 43c that are curved inwardly (as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) are provided along the length of each rotating blade 43a and provided on the fixed blade 43b, such that ice may be ground therebetween.
As can be understood from FIG. 2, the guides 42a, 42b comprise a first guide 42a which is inclined downward from one side section of the case 41 to the grinder 43, and is formed by being extended to a distance from the grinder 43 and a second guide 42b which is inclined downward from the an opposing side section facing of the case 41 to the grinder 43 and is formed by extending to an adjacent location from the fixed blade 43b. 
Referring to FIG. 2, the shutter 45 has a fixed length and is formed to have a curved portion according to a radius of rotation of the rotating blade 43a. The shutter 45 has one end being hinge-engaged adjacent to the first guide 42a to allow rotation towards the bottom of the case 41 in order to selectively open and close the diffuser 41a, and has another end that selectively contacts with the second guide 42b when the diffuser 41a is closed to prevent ice being discharged from the ice bin 40.
The bottom of the shutter 45 includes a coupling member 47 having certain dimensions and a coupling hole 47a formed therethrough, and one end of a control lever 46 which upwardly supports the shutter 45 is coupled in the coupling hole 47a to allow the shutter 45 to be opened or closed, and to maintain the closed state of the diffuser 41a. The other end of the control lever 46 is inserted into a joint 48 that is securely attached to the case 41 and acts as the axis of rotation for the control lever 46 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
In accordance with the related art structure, the ice sent into the ice bin 40 through the open upper potion thereof, is transferred to the grinder 43 by a spiral type auger 44 that rotates upon receiving power from a motor (not shown). Pieces of ice fall between the curved blade portions 43c of the rotating blade 43a (that rotates on the same axis as the auger 44) and the curved blade portions 43c of the fixed blade 43b that is fixed to the case 41, and the ice is thus ground (crushed) by the rotating power of the rotating blade 43a. Thereafter, a mode change operation causes the shutter 45 to open and the grinded ice is discharged through the diffuser 41a. 
If the user desires ice that is not grinded, the above mode change operation is omitted, and the shutter 45 opens such that relatively large pieces of ice cubes (that have not been grinded) are discharged through the diffuser 41a. 
However, in such an ice bin of the related art refrigerator, there are problems in that when the shutter 45 is opened to discharge ice cubes from the ice bin 40, too many ice cubes may be discharged all at once. Also, the ice cubes hitting the hard surfaces of the ice bin 40 and other components may break up undesirably.
Moreover, there are problems in that the pieces of ice that were not completely grinded (during previous grinding operations over prolonged use) are undesirably accumulated at the bottom of the ice bin 40, which interfere with the rotary motion of the rotating blade 43a to cause improper grinding, unnecessary ware-and-tear on the rotating blade and fixed blade, and damage to various other components.